Introduction

The Centre has been in existence for over four decades now. During the late fifties and sixties it was a part of the International Politics and Commonwealth Studies Programme in the Indian School of International Studies. It got an independent status under the name of Centre for Russian and East European Studies in late sixties when it admitted a few research scholars to undertake specialized study of the region.

Till 1970 Prof. R. Vaidyanath was the lone faculty member heading the Centre. This was the time when Indian School of International Studies was merged with the newly established Jawaharlal Nehru University with a name School of International Studies. The Centre passed through a phase of transition during 1971-73, when Prof. Vaidyanath was on long leave from the Centre, preparatory to his eventual resignation. It became functional on a regular basis in 1973 with the arrival of Prof. Zafar Imam as its new chairman.

Soon two more faculty members, Professors Nirmala Joshi and R.R. Sharma joined. The first batch of regular M. Phil/Ph. D scholars were admitted to the Centre in 1974. In 1975 the name of the Centre was changed to Centre for Soviet and East European Studies by which it was known till very recently. In the wake of the Soviet disintegration and the fundamental systemic transformation the Centre had once again to go through the change of nomenclature. It is now called Centre for Russian, Central Asian and East European Studies.

In the expansion and development of the Centre, in terms of its faculty and student strength as well as academic recognition, the role played by Prof. Zafar Imam and his colleagues was crucial. A scholar of repute and prolific writer Prof. Imam provided dynamic leadership in the growth and development of the Centre during 70s-90s as its Chairman and Director of the Area Studies Pogramme within it. Over the years, the Centre has grown into a mature Centre of academic and research activity and is known for its excellent research work, nationally and internationally.

It works in close co-operation with policy makers and larger academic community. The Centre also hosts guest scholars, both from India and abroad, who spend some time working on issues related to Centre's activities. Regular seminars and conferences are also organised by the Centre in order to bring together a wide range of expertise and to exchange views on subjects studied by the faculty and the research scholars. In recognition of its high quality academic and research programme University Grants Commission has accorded the Centre the status of an advance Centre of Russian and Central Asian Area Studies in India. The following two areas of teaching and research are identified by the University Grants Commission as priority areas.

a)Political System/Foreign Policy of Russia b)Socio-economic and Cultural Changes in Central Asian Republics.

Another areas of research and teaching in the Centre are Russian economy, Politics and Society in Central and Eastern Europe, Transcaucasia and Baltic Republics.

Historic changes such as the dissolution of the Soviet Union and emergence of fifteen new independent Republics, the reunification of Germany, the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the establishment of Czech & Slovak Republics have underlined the importance of research and teaching activities carried out by the Centre in diverse areas as noted above.. In addition, the issues related to transition to a market economy and democracy in most of these countries have further underlined the importance of research in these areas. These dramatic changes and the end of the Cold War also called for changes in the existing courses and introduction of new courses in the Centre. An exercise to that effect was undertaken in 1992-93, which brought about required changes in the structure and contents of courses. Since then, an attempt has been to introduce new courses to cover rapid socio-political and economic changes taking place in the entire region. In 1998 a new course on the Economic Transformation in the Post-Socialist Russia and Eastern Europe was introduced. The Centre is once again in the process of updating old and introducing new courses.

Russian language has been a critical component of the academic programme of the Centre so far. But now in new circumstances, a serious attempt would be made to develop an expertise on other Central Asian and East European languages. Since training facilities for these languages are not available in the University, research students of the Centre are expected to acquire proficiency only in the Russian language at the moment. Serious efforts are made by the Centre to acquire primary source material to facilitate quality research. It has its disposal a fairly large collection of material, which is located at the 8th floor of the Central University library. In addition, a small library is also being planned at the centre itself.

Prof. Ajay Kumar Patnaik

Prof. Anuradha M. Chenoy

Dr Bhaswati Sarkar, Assistant Professor

Dr Gulshan Sachdeva, Associate Professor

Prof Nirmala M. Joshi

Dr Phool Badan, Assistant Professor

Prof R R Sharma

Prof. Shashikant Jha

Prof Shams-ud-din

Dr Sanjay Kumar Pandey, Assistant Professor

Dr. Tulsi Ram, Associate Professor

Dr Tahir Ashgar

Teaching Programmes

The Centre offers two-year M.Phil programme as well as an integrated six years M.Phil/Ph.D programme. Apart from that most of the teachers of the Centre also offer specialised courses at M.A level that is run by the school as a whole. Russian Language and Research Methodology are compulsory courses for all students of the Centre.

M.Phil. Courses offered by the centre

SE602 History of Russia:  Nirmala M Joshi

SE604 Economic Development in CIS & Eastern Europe:  Gulshan Sachdeva   Arvind Vyas

SE 610 Russian Language:  Preeti Das and Tahir Asghar

SE612 Government & Politics in Eastern Europe:  Shashikant Jha

SE 613 Soviet Union & International Communist Movement:  TulsiRam

SE 615 Economic Development in Central Asia:  Tahir Asghar

SE 616 Central Asia since the Beginning of the Csarist Period:  Ajay K Patnaik

SE 618 Politics and Society in Russia:  Shashikant Jha Anuradha M. Chenoy

SE Research Methodology:  Tahir Asghar  Sanjay K. Pandey  Sahshikant Jha

SE Foreign Policy of New Russia:  Shashikant Jha  Anuradha M. Chenoy SE620 Economic Transformation in Post- Socialist Russia & Eastern Europe:  Gulshan Sachdeva